Parker > Lassie

So this morning, just a few minutes ago, Parker saved my life. It was horrible, terrible, awful. Picture it- Mississippi, 10:00 a.m., sitting on my couch, eating cold pizza for breakfast (Its Veterans Day, don't judge me-- J. Dawn Carr Law Office is closed!!), watching America's Next Top Model. Parker is, as usual, begging for food and I, like a good mom, am rewarding her with lots of scraps.

Suddenly, something catches her attention, out of the corner of her eye. She moves to the side. Looks up to the back of the couch. I, sensing something is wrong (since Parker and I are so attuned to each other), turn as well. And that's when I see it. Mere inches from my shoulder.

A HUGE ROACH. I'm not sure if it was an FR (Flying Roach, as we call it at the Carr House). I jumped up, throwing the blanket, the clicker, my phone in all different directions. Parker jumps up, I jump up, I start screaming and dancing around like an idiot. I HATE roaches. And to think this roach was was crawling AWAY from me, so it had been EVEN closer. I cannot explain the dread and disgust in my mind, even now, much later. Its a nightmare.

Luckily, I have finely honed reflexes and I was able to grab a show and kill this monster before it got away. I keep feeling phantom roaches all over me and I had to run around and scream for a few minutes afterward. I'm pretty sure Parker thought I was ridiculous!!!

This is the dead roach...



And THIS IS HOW CLOSE IT WAS TO WHERE I WAS SITTING ON THE RIGHT...



My new lucky shoe...



Readers, this isn't the first time I've had a horrible brush with a monster like this. When I first moved to Laurel, I lived with my Aunt Ju for a few months till I found an apartment. I lived in her attic bedroom, which is a super cute room with twin beds pushed against the wall. The sloping ceiling comes right above the beds, but it was perfect for me since I'm short!!

I'd seen several roaches in the attic but I'd kept my composure and killed them. No amount of begging my mean old aunt for an exterminator visit would warm her cold heart.

One night, I'm sleeping comfortably in my twin bed, and all the sudden, I feel something on my face. I brush it off, thinking it is my imagination, and I decide to get up, go downstairs to the bathroom. I come back upstairs and I cannot shake this strange feeling, so I turn on the light. And there, sitting on my pillow, right next to where my head had just been, was a huge FR. The same FR, I will go to my grave believing, had dropped onto my FACE just seconds before.

Instead of panicking, I merely screamed, jumped around, grabbed my cell and my sleep machine and ran downstairs and slept on the couch. My wicked Aunt didn't even care, and after a couple nights of sleeping on the couch, she told me I couldn't even do that anymore, it was messing up her couch and that I had to go back upstairs to my roach room. She's freaking evil. She never even offered to call an exterminator for me! I'm pretty sure when she has a bad day, this is the story she thinks of to cheer herself up.

So, dear readers, I hope your morning was better than mine. But luckily, I have the sweetest, most brave girl in the world, watching over me!!

Its the most wonderful time of the year...

Its come to my attention that this blog didn't post earlier this week when I originally wrote it-- so here it is-- better late than never!!!


Hey readers! I'm busy at work today, but I'm taking time out of my busy schedule to update! Things have been busy these last couple weeks and I cannot really explain how positive and upbeat I am feeling about the upcoming weeks and months! I'm so incredibly blessed to have lots of friends and family who love me and treat me wonderfully and care about me-- I'm a lucky girl! I forget to tell you guys that sometimes, but you all mean the world to me. I'm so blessed that I can tell you guys all the stupid things I do, and, when you finish laughing hysterically at my idiot decisions, you still love me. Of course, this message is only for readers of this blog, so if you are my friend and you are NOT a blog reader, you'll never know how much you mean to me and how much I love you. And you are a total loser for not reading my blog. As Barney Stinson would say, its gotten a lot better.

Ok, enough of my rambling on and on about my wonderful friends and family.

Here are some things going on in my life.



Laurel Junior Auxiliary-- we have a lot going on in the coming weeks and I'm really looking forward to most of it! This Friday, we have the Very Special Arts Festival-- it is in conjunction with the Lauren Rogers Museum Guild and the Arts League and its so wonderful. Its a huge arts and crafts festival for children with special needs. Ellisville State School brings a lot of children, but kids come from all over South Mississippi and they really enjoy it. I think it is my favorite part of being an LJA member. Its just really uplifting, and reminds me how incredibly lucky I am and how important it is to give back to people in any way I can. I don't have a ton of money to donate (or really ANY money!) and I don't necessarily have a ton of special skills wherein I could make beautiful toys out of spiderwebs, duct tape and glitter, or nurse a person back to health or anything. I'm not even totally sure of what my special skills are. But I can hand children chalk and let them make a humongous mural on the wall, and then, at the end, sweep up all of the chalk from the floor. Even I can handle that and I can laugh when the kids laugh and hold back tears when I see how much fun they are having. I mean, even I can handle that!

We also have the Fall Social coming up next Tuesday-- my Provisional class and I will be doing all the cooking for this rather large get together of all past and current members. Yes, to be clear, that means if you are a past or current member of LJA and are planning to attend next week, you should avoid the Creamy, Dreamy, Spinach, Onion and Bacon Dip. Cause I'm making it. This is what is should look like. Its a Paula Deen recipe so it literally has a pound of bacon and 3 packages cream cheese (yuck!) and mayonnaise. So it's low-fat.



Also, in typing that last sentence, I've just realized that MAYONNAISE has two "N"'s. Is that right? I've always spelled it "mayonaise". Although, to be honest, I'm not sure I can ever remember typing or spelling it. So, maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. Ugh. Its gross.

Ok, with that totally random, unimportant last thought, I'm signing off. There is work to do.

Its November, folks...

So, its November. Um, somewhere, in my mind, its really like the end of August-- I've been in a fog the last few months, apparently, and it just doesn't seem like its November already. I'm finally coming out of my fog and realizing its getting cold, my winter clothes are still packed up, and I've not even thought about Christmas shopping!! But, this is my favorite time of the year and I fully intend to enjoy every last second of it!

A couple weekends ago, Mom, Aunt Ju and Emilee and I went to Mitchell Farms, in Collins, Ms, about 20 minutes from Laurel. We had a fabulous time!! I'm just now getting around to posting pictures but its more of a Thanksgiving-y thing than a Halloween thing, so I'm still safe.

I'd never been to Mitchell Farms before but apparently it is THE place to head during this time of the year! There is a petting zoo, corn maze, riding tour, cotton patch, corn jump for kids, food, and all sorts of other stuff, especially for kids! We had a great time, even without any kids!



We had to buy tickets, but I don't know how much they were-- ask Mom! But with the ticket, you got a free pumpkin!



Sweet cousins:



Mean moms who took off in their car and left their sweet daughters to try to find the place themselves and laughed maniacally when we missed the turn (since we'd had no idea where this place was!):



We took a tour of the whole farm-- we got to going pretty fast at one point:





The corn maze-- I'm totally isolated here-- I felt like I was at Ron's house in Harry Potter, hiding from Bellatrix LeStrange. No, actually, the corn maze, which was a great idea, was a bit of a letdown-- it was so dry and dusty and you could pretty much see everyone around you. Em is ahead of me, right around that bend, so I wasn't really alone!



There was a really pretty cotton patch! Em was impressed with my knowledge of the cotton gin and Eli Whitney. Thanks, 9th grade Mississippi History!







Em carrying two pumpkins back to the car-- it was a long, tough walk. We thought we could make it without a cart, but by the time we got to the car, we were about exhausted! Its hard carrying two big ole pumpkins!!

Sumo Wrestling, Psycho Birds and Creepy Pumpkins

I've already posted today (twice!) but I'm making up for lost time, lucky readers. Picture this-- its Friday night, I'm watching America's Next Top Model and relaxing after a terribly long week. Mom and I are discussing decorations and food for the Grove tomorrow (philosophical differences keep rearing their ugly head-- do we use Halloween decorations which will clearly clash with the usual reb/blue/Ole Miss/Colonel Reb decorations? Or ignore the Holiday altogether in an effort to keep the tablescape uniform? Again, reasons why I don't sleep well at night.)

Then a knock at the door and my cousin Em (fav!) and our friend Mal come right on in. I'm glad to see them, especially Mal since I've not seen her in forever and she's lots of fun (not that Em's not fun, but I see her all the time! Including, tomorrow morning at 7:40!). We are catching up and Mal's loving on Parker and noting her new cute haircut, when the door opens and someone else comes in. Its a totally fabulous Friday night surprise:





Its out of control. Aunt Ju and Lo (avid readers will remember Lo from Betsy and Peter's visit back during the summer. She's a part of the family!)!! Lo lives a couple houses away from mine, but alas, they did not walk but drove instead. However, my joy was not deterred. I literally jumped up and down I was laughing so very hard.



Stuck between a rock and a hard place...



The wrestlers decided to sit down and stay a while:





Em and I even took a whirl with the wrestlers:



And of course, me and Sweet Parker-- she left the room after a while-- I'm guessing we kinda freaked her out!



We laughed and laughed and laughed. Aunt Ju recounted the recent bird attack at her house with Lo and Mal, and I danced to the broken pumpkin song (I can't explain-- you'll have to come see in person!)

We had the best time-- it seems like way too long since we've all been together. I've been a little busy and a lot distracted these last couple weeks for many different reasons, so I really enjoyed getting back to who I am-- someone who loves to enjoy the people around them, who loves to laugh, who loves being around people who love her!! I so needed to sit around with some of the people I love and laugh until my head hurt! It was amazing and an absolutely fantastic way to end a long week! Hope you enjoy these pictures as well! Now off to bed with visions of a Rebel win tomorrow!!!

I've not got the hang of this blog thing yet...

I've just posted a blog about my DisneyWorld trip-- it was started right after I got back but I just now finished it and its apparently posted before my more recent posts. So, scroll down and read it! If you don't I'll come to your house and make you listen to the story behind every single one of my hundreds of pictures. I'm dead serious.

Yeah, yeah, yeah...

So I've not put up my Disney pictures (I tried a while back and the pictures wouldn't upload and I'm not known for my patience). Still working on that, and I've not posted very often since I've gotten back cause I've been in a bit of a funk. But hopefully that is over now! I've actually been quite flattered by all the people fussing at me to get my blog back up and running! Thanks you guys-- your Christmas gifts will be especially fabulous this year!!

I did a Facebook quiz today and I'm anxious to see what people think about the accuracy of this. Anyone have any thoughts about this:

You are observant, cooperative, informative, and expressive. You are greatly concerned with the health and welfare of those under your care and you are the nurturer of established social institutions such as businesses, churches, social clubs, and schools. You are the most sociable of the Guardians (SJ's) and you strive to provide friendly social service. You spend a lot of your energy making sure social functions are successful, traditions are upheld, and the needs of others are met.

You are an excellent master of ceremonies or chairperson of social events. Highly cooperative, you are very capable of maintaining teamwork among your workers. You are attentive to details of the goods and services you provide. During social events, you are often able to remember your guests' names after one introduction, and you may appear to be aware of what everyone has been doing.

You are friendly, outgoing, and gregarious. You love to talk and you can become quite agitated when you are isolated from others. You are fascinated about news concerning your friends, neighbors, and local community. You will often strike up conversations with strangers and will talk about anything that comes to mind. If someone wants to know what has been going on in the community, you are often happy to provide the details.

You may be the most sympathetic of the role variants as you are highly sensitive to the feelings of others. This sensitivity can leave you self-conscious as you care about what others think of you. You are affectionate and you feel a need to be loved in return. You can be easily crushed by criticism directed towards you and you strongly desire to be appreciated for who you are and for the service you provide to others.

Famous Providers include William Howard Taft, Dave Thomas, Barbara Walters, and Sam Walton.

I'm especially intrigued by the William Howard Taft reference-- I mean, I've always dreamed of being just like the guy, but now, it seems like my dreams have come true. Me and WHT-- love that guy!!

In other news, here are some things I'm looking forward to:

1. The Grove for the Ole Miss-Auburn game-- it seems like its been a long time since a game and even longer since a game when everyone I love attended. Now, my Katie and David won't be there, but Em and even Betsy will be!! Yay!! I miss the Grove food and seeing everyone and I really miss winning ballgames. I doubt that'll happen this week, but you never know...

2. Getting back on meds-- many of you know I take my crazy pills (to keep me from going crazy) but I've been off them for a long time (don't really have a good reason, just not a lot of extra money) and I'm headed back to the doctor this week ($75.00 no-insurance charge be darned) to get my prescription refilled. I think everyone can breathe a collective sigh of relief. And if you breathe quietly, and after I'm back on my pills, I won't bite your collective heads off.

3. Parade of Flags at FBC-- its in less than 2 weeks and I've spent a lot of time and energy trying to organize it this year. The past two years I was "in charge" though in name only-- other, older women did most of the heavy lifting since I'd never participated or even watched a Parade. This year, though, its just me. And since our Children's Minister Joan has been busy with a lot of other things (church building moving and renovation, an early Parade that comes right after Trunk or Treat), I'm basically trying to do as much as I can for her. The costumes are finally coming together and I've been working on the script today. I'm really excited!!!

4. Trunk or Treat-- I'm dressing up as Esther. Its Joan's idea and I think it will be a good one. I'm actually really looking forward to it. I mean, I get to dress up as a Queen!! How fun??!! And while I'd like to pretend what I look like on the outside doesn't really matter, I do hope people think I make a pretty, or at least, decent Queen, and don't wonder why I am wearing a Halloween costume that's totally misrepresentative of what I look like! I hope I get a couple compliments at least! Y'all know how insecure I am!

5. Getting out my winter clothes. Yes, its still 80 degrees outside during the day, but its chilly at night and anyone who knows me knows I'm always cold! I've already started wearing sweaters in the office and socks to bed at night. Soon, my fingers will freeze and they won't thaw out till March. I love my winter clothes. And yes, for all you haters, my Uggs will still be in the rotation. I love them. They are comfy. They are warm. I've had them longer than anyone I know and I will continue to have them long after you people stop wearing your Toms. Its true love, not some casual dating thing. And, yes, to all who are wondering, I WILL still be wearing my blue Uggs that my dear Katie so graciously bought me off the sale rack at TJ Maxx a couple years ago. In fact, I wore them this morning while walking Parker. Be jealous.

So, I'm finally back from DisneyWorld!!

I know all my avid readers are glad I'm back from my DisneyWorld trip! I've actually been back for a long time, but it seemed that as soon as I got back, lots of stuff started happening and I'm just now getting caught up! I'm glad to be back to, but it was one of the most fun vacations I've ever had! I was absolutely obnoxious about taking pictures, so I'll have a lot to post about at a later date. Today I'm going to post a little bit and then get back to being a bum. I'm also planning to clean the kitchen and do a bit of work, so we'll see how that goes. Its just good to be home with the beautiful weather we've had and knowing Fall is finally here! These next three months are the best three months of any year, at least to me, so I'm looking forward to good things happening for me and those I love.

So, now to get back to what I know you're all DYING to hear about--- HARRY POTTER!!! I went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter on my vacation and it was absolutely worth the extra money I spent! I had the best time! I went by myself since the other girls had to head on home but that didn't bother me a bit. Here are some of the pictures from my trip-- a random sampling, if you will. Since its my blog, I'll be posting in detail, of course, many other pictures I took, and since its your life, you don't have to read those posts. But for now....

Our trip was a "Girls Trip" with 4 other women-- Allison, Lesley, Shelby and Sonya. I was a bit apprehensive about this trip because I only knew Allison pretty well, Lesley somewhat and had only recently met Shelby and Sonya, AFTER this trip was planned! And traveling can be stressful anyway, so I was a bit nervous-- but it was all for naught as we got along wonderfully! I really had a blast and hope they did too! I love these girls!!

Friday, Shelby and I headed down to Destin where Allison, Lesley, their families and two other couples had been at the beach all week. Lesley cooked spaghetti and we had a good time relaxing before out 5:45 a.m. departure. Here we are fixing our plates (you can see the steam off the spaghetti pot! We were concerned because we'd heard there was celery in this recipe, but it turned out delicious!) Thats Shelby in the light blue, Allison in the dark blue and Lesley's husband, Eric.



Here are Wyatt, Gracie and Campbell. Wyatt and Campbell are Lesley's children, and I met that that evening- but they were so cute! And adorable Gracie (Allison's daughter) has been in my class at church before and she is just about the most precious thing I've ever met! Love Gracie!



First Day - Epcot!!



Back to Earth after a 3D Space Mission to Mars:



Second Day - Magic Kingdom - obviously they knew I was coming because they decorated for my favorite season-- coincidence? I think not!




Shelby and Allison on tram ride from parking lot:



Visited Minnie's house but she wasn't there. Girl has good taste though!



The next day we went to Hollywood studios where we rode the Tower of Terror-- TWICE! It was so fun and we barely had to wait! The second time, Sonya was brave enough to hold her hands above her head, but yours truly never let go of her death grip on the seat!



Lots of stuff we did that week required 3D glasses:



A soldier guarding the super cool Toy Story ride!



At Hollywood studios:



Beauty and the Beast was the most fun!



We ate at the Brown Derby at Hollywood Studios-- the best Cobb Salad! My favorite meal of the week! After we ate, the rain came down:



We took refuge at the American Idol Experience Finals!



Later that night we hit Downtown Disney where I proceeded to spend way too much money on souvenirs (most of which I've not even unpacked!) in just a few minutes. I spent the rest of the time people watching. These Lego tourists were apparently fascinated by me and kept trying to take my picture. As Betsy would say, paparazzi. It comes with being a VIP.



Allison and I at Epcot



Lady who made the coolest animals out of candy. Unfortunately, we didn't get to taste or even buy any, but it was still neat!!



Since I was a Disney newbie (I'd been before but it was years ago-- like Nicholas was a toddler!), my girls were very nice and let me pick what we would do and they took good care of me!! And at the end of the week, I was brave enough to venture a ride on the monorail all by myself!!! They were so proud of their grown up little girl!!



And finally, the most important thing I bought on the trip-- the best $5 I've ever spent-- to keep me semi-dry the day it poured in Epcot!



Now dear readers, rest assured, this is simply a random smattering of my pictures from my trip-- I still have literally hundreds more to show you! Lucky you!!! From time to time, I might add some more pictures and expand on my trip, but for now, this is all the time I have (lucky you!). However, there will be more about my Harry Potter visit!!